Serena's Blog: Christmas Special
by Yugoslavia
Summary: Having recently united for the first time since they both left Kalos, Serena and Ash take an unexpected detour through the capital of Kalos while en-route to a Christmas party with friends and family. Side-story to Serena's Blog.
1. Chapter 1

"The capital of Kalos…"

Serena was staring at the two strips of paper clutched at the end of her gloved fingertips, each marked identically to one another. They were train tickets, each for a single passenger, and they were for the capital of Kalos: Starlight City.

An envelope sat on the table of the café she was sitting in, opened up, Serena's name on the front of it. She hadn't spent that much time reading from the card that had been inside, only reading from the tickets that had fallen out into her lap when she had first opened up the envelope itself. She had been so engrossed looking at the tickets when she first saw them that she hadn't looked beyond them to the rest of what was contained inside the card. As she lowered the tickets slowly, looking back onto the table, the card was drawing her attention.

Serena set the tickets aside on the surface of the table, and she reached for the card. She opened it up.

* * *

 _Hi sweetie!_

 _I thought I'd leave a little surprise for you in your bag. I told you I'd get tickets for our little get-together so that you and Ash could travel together when you pick him up from the airport, but I thought I might put you both on a small adventure._

 _This train will take you both through the capital city of Kalos—Starlight City. It's only for the afternoon. Be safe, but don't forget to have fun!_

 _I hope you were surprised! Call if you need anything._

 _Love, mom!_

* * *

No matter how many times Serena read over the tickets, running her hands through her golden lengths of hair as her head rested against her palms, she looked over the tickets like they were written in a foreign language. Not a single thing made sense about them.

"Panchaaa…"

Down in her lap, Serena felt something fidgeting around. The little, stumpy black legs that stuck out from underneath Pancham's white, pauch belly were sticking themselves out further, pushing out and raking the pudgy heels of his paws against the end of her sweater. Where the long, slender, maroon-colored sweater ran down the length of her chest and fell onto the lap of her thick, gray khakis, her Pancham had made a small nest in the warmth of her lap, nestling close to her stomach. He had been freed of the confines of duffel bag she had hauled all her stuff around in, but even being parked beneath the open, wafting vent of heat in the cafe hadn't made him nearly as warm as he had been nestled in Serena's folded clothes. He shivered quietly, the chills he got through his tiny body clearly keeping him from sleeping, making him further bury himself in Serena's tummy.

She slouched back in the cafe booth, sighing gently and feeling her stomach rise against the weight of Pancham's head. She cradled him with an arm, draping it over his stomach, while her other hand raked her fingers lightly through the tufts of fur on the side of his head until she found the furry knot of his ear. As he turned slightly, resisting little against the warmth Serena was filling him with, he began to drift off to sleep and forget about the rest.

Silently to herself, Serena cursed that she didn't have someone to talk it over with. Pancham, her best conversation partner, was fast falling asleep. The absolute heat from above was making every inch of skin beneath her thick, wintery clothing tingle with relief, making what once was little crumbles of snow water droplets to dot the thinly knit lines in her sweater. It was all making her sleepy too, feeling the soft trilling, buzzing sensation of Pancham beginning to snore. Outside the confines of the cafe was the sound of activity, life and conversation of the rest of the airport, barely any sound in the cafe beyond the faint sounds of Christmas music and a lone cashier going through the till nearby. The sun had set hours earlier than it would've a month ago, the sky near completely dark even as it was sliding into mid-afternoon.

"You want back in the duffel? Get some nice sleep?" Serena asked, quietly, her head turning low towards where Pancham's head had rolled against her ribcage. Her arm gently lifted his stomach, nudging him to keep him just at the edge of sleep.

A tiny black paw grasped at a fold in her sweater, tugging at the corner and weakly sinking his thin black claws into the little hooks of thread. It made the fabric brush against her skin, a weak protest at best.

Serena chuckled. "You want to be awake to see Ash, huh?" The manicured, unpainted edge of her nail toyed with Pancham's nose, tickling softly, getting an annoyed lick from him. "I don't think you'll make it, which is plenty fine…!"

"Relax sweetie, it'll be fine…"

The tan top of the duffel was still open, and though she had opened it wide when she had pulled Pancham out there was still a visible bend in the zipper track where it had been kept open for Pancham to poke his head out as he kept himself warm. The sweater Serena had tucked him into when his body was nestled inside had been pushed up against the open flap of the duffel, set aside like a blanket on an unmade bed. She pulled the sweater out, letting it unfold from where she held it by the collar, then draping it on the vinyl booth her back rested against beside her, letting it rest, clearing out space to tuck Pancham back in.

As her hands pressed down, widening the little spot where his body had rested before, Serena felt her hand nudge against something—something that wasn't clothing. She first thought to her boots, things that she had packed and remembered putting in, but this wasn't the same thing. A puzzled expression appeared on her face as she pressed down, her fingers nudging against something solid and flat. It felt unusual, as Serena wormed her way through the layers of fabric until her fingers found the cold surface of plastic.

A strange look appeared on Serena's face. For a second she forgot about Pancham, about the task at hand of putting him back into the warmth of the bag, as she rooted around in the bag until she found the edge. She felt little separations in the edge, little gaps that were cleanly cut—ports. Her eyes widened silently as she realized just what it was.

It was the laptop.

However it had made its way into the backpack Serena didn't know. She hadn't really seen it since she had packed it for Hoenn, but that had been nearly nine months ago. She had brought all her things back, packing the things she would need for a cold winter in Kalos in a duffel she would travel the region with and need as soon as she got there. She really hadn't changed all that much from it, not taking it out—for whatever reason Serena had the distinct thought that she had only brought the things she needed, and cleaned out what she wouldn't use.

But that didn't matter now; the laptop was there. Serena reached for the edge of it, firmly grasping and gently wedging it out from where it had been tucked behind the mass of folded clothes sitting center in the main bay of the duffel. She freed it, carefully bringing it up into the light, bringing into view of her wide and surprised eyes. A warm glow filled the cafe, and the single spotlight of a hanging lamp above Serena's table cast an unusual shadow across the side of the laptop, making it seem foreign and new to Serena. The cream-colored shell, with the with the edges and the Pokeball-logo etched in a brassy brown all around it, all seemed incredibly familiar to her—something she really hadn't seen in the nine months since she had last used it.

Though she had excited herself by the prospect of the laptop and uncovering its secrets, Serena quickly remembered the task at hand, lifting Pancham and setting him on the stack of clothes that lined the middle. She haphazardly laid the sweater as a blanket above him, her empty sleeve flopping lazily over the round, melon-shaped head that was already fast asleep. With the laptop in hand, she quickly slid the tickets aside from the table's surface, then setting the laptop down in the middle of the table.

Carefully, Serena opened the lid.

The laptop had been powered off, but it had been in hibernation. Serena hadn't even reached for the power button—as she had so hastily been prepared to do—when the laptop switched on automatically. The black screen glowed, flashing the laptop logo, seconds before it loaded up the operating system and brought Serena to the sign-in screen.

Though she stared in amazement, giving a look of silent shock, her hands lifted to hover over the keyboard, her fingers arched over the keys she felt so at home using. She quickly punched in the password, signing in.

Serena had been expecting the desktop—the familiar, cute image she had set so many months ago, but instead she was suddenly faced with the bright screen of the web browser. Whatever she had been looking at before filled the whole screen—save for the narrow address bar at the top and the tab-less tab bar—and the laptop loaded it just like it had been before she had let the laptop sit silently. It was a blog post, one like many she had written when she had first received the laptop, one of the many posts she had written during that trip to Costa Nova where she had answered so many questions from the people who followed her. This, however, was the last post—the last thing Serena had posted in the nine months since she had been absent.

* * *

 _I'm taking a break guys. I've had a really great time posting and answering all your questions!_

 _I hope to see you all someday, whenever someday may come!_

* * *

Serena stared at the words on the screen silently. The time stamp in the corner of the post was still frozen exactly as it had been when she had last posted it, saying it had only been posted a few moments ago.

Tempted, Serena held down the control key with a finger, then reaching and hitting the 'R' key with the other. The screen flashed white for a second, gathering data before it then loaded the image of the exact same post on the screen, only nine months later. She traced her two fingers down the length of the trackpad, scrolling through the post, watching the title fly up and the rest of the body text come into view. She passed it all, until she reached the bottom, then went past the edge and into all of the comments that had been left behind.

Never mind the glowing icon in the top-right corner, the envelope symbol overshadowed by the red, glowing stamp of how many messages she had received since she had last logged on, Serena was engrossed by one particular number just below the body of her post. It was the number posted next to 'comments', showing her how many she had received on her last post—how many questions and other written gestures had been left behind for her to answer. Even as Serena stared at it, it was unfathomable how many she had received.

The glow of the laptop filled her vision, brightening her face in an unhealthy-looking blue glow. Her head had craned in, eyes searching while she kept them as wide and as open as she could possibly muster. Serena's one hand held the corner of the laptop display, while the other held her head gently to keep it propped up while she read through. She had become hypnotized by the screen, unable to look away at all the questions that had been lined up for her. It wasn't just the curiosity of the questions that had appeared on the screen for her, it was the feeling it was stirring inside of her. Serena had felt well put-together for almost the whole day, feeling some semblance of control over her own emotions even in the face of a whole stomachful of Butterfree swirling about inside of her—the very same feelings that would have easily flustered her before—but the nostalgia and familiarity of the laptop was beginning to distract her from that sense of security. She was fidgeting, unable to keep her legs from sitting comfortably on the vinyl seats of the booth as she sat herself at the edge. Her fingers felt out of place as she tried tracing a straight line down the middle of the trackpad, but there was something about the questions flustering her.

"Pi- _ka!_ "

The sound was right next to Serena—right in _front_ of her. Serena couldn't know where it was as she stared at the laptop screen with a sudden awareness of her surroundings, searching the darkened corners of her vision beyond the laptop display.

She had the thought to look down to her lap, seconds before she had felt the weight of something suddenly drop into it. A face suddenly poked through in vivid, electric yellow, staring up at Serena with beady black and brown eyes—it was Pikachu.

" _Aaahh!_ " Serena squeaked, keeping herself from shouting and shrieking in a public place.

It sent her back against the back of the booth, making her suddenly scoot herself into her seat as she felt the weight of Pikachu traveling up her, climbing onto her. The table scooted with the loud grating of metal on dull wood, Serena's leg nudging against the metal post beneath the table and making it slide away just slightly. Serena didn't realize how much she had slouched into the booth until she felt Pikachu climbing up her chest, realizing it halfway before she looked into a dark yellow face and suddenly felt a wet nose brushing against her cheek, giving kisses.

"H-Hey…!" Serena squirmed, her hands gently prying his face from hers. "P-Pikachu…! It's so good to see you!"

Pikachu squeaked, his short arms waving around as he sagged in the grip Serena had beneath his arm. He came down to rest in her lap, her arms wrapping around him gently and holding him close. Beside her, a head gently lifted from beneath the half-closed flap of the duffel, Pancham woken up by the commotion that had just taken place barely a foot away. Pikachu made squeals of joy as Serena squeezed him tight, nuzzling his forehead with a teasing snarl and tickling his exposed belly. She lowered her head and kissed his cheek, her eyes shifting up as she was made aware of something approaching from the edge of her sight, making her lift her head.

Standing beyond the darkened entrance to the cafe, a dimly-lit figure stepped in from the main hall of the airport and into the main cafe floor. As he walked closer, the lights from tables scattered throughout gave Serena a clear look at just who this person was—she knew, by his Pikachu, just who exactly this person was before he had even come in.

Serena made no hesitation as she pulled herself up from where she had slouched back in the booth. She had barely nudged Pikachu off of her lap when the little motion made him scamper off and across the booth, getting to her feet without a thought. She couldn't tear her eyes from the person in front of her as she suddenly remembered all the different ways she had imagined meeting this person again.

She walked to him, Ash appearing in front of her eyes as he stepped in front of the light, smiling brightly despite his exhaustion from the flight. She hurried to him and threw her arms around him, pressing herself against him as she leaned in and kicked off a foot, landing in his embrace. He was incredibly warm, and she felt that warmth and comfort only become greater as Ash wrapped her arms around her back.

"Hey Serena…!" Ash beamed, patting Serena's back as her head rested on his shoulders. The tiredness of a full day of traveling was in his voice, but he still seemed excited to see Serena.

They pulled apart, just enough to see one another, looking up at each other at an arms distance from one another. There was an unusual pause between the two, like for a second they expected something to happen like it had happened before, but they both resorted to a nervous chuckle.

"Oh goodness, Ash! It's so good to see you… too!" Serena said through a nervous laugh. "How was your flight…?"

"Good…! I slept for most of it, to be honest…" Ash said, scratching at the back of his head sheepishly. "Sorry, I wanted to see where Pikachu had run off to and make sure I didn't lose him—and I really, really want to hear what's up! But I also really, really need to use the bathroom…"

Serena blinked. "Oh…! Well, sure! Let me, ummm... let me pack my things up! And we can get on our way!"

Looking down, Serena watched where she had let her hands rest on Ash's arms and shoulders, where they had held each other after hugging. Gently, she released where her hands held the soft, felt-y sleeves of his blue winter jacket, letting her arms fall away. She had hardly noticed where Ash's hands had rested on either side of her hips until she felt them sliding away and coming to rest by his sides. Though she stared down, hardly able to look Ash in the eye as she realized how entangled the two of them had become, she quickly looked back up and resumed conversation, like the moment hadn't happened.

As Ash stepped away, smiling, something suddenly hopped out between Serena's legs. It was Pikachu, leaping out from between, kicking off where he had landed off the tabletop and landing down onto the ground, hurrying after Ash. She had yelped, letting out a surprised sound, not used to Pikachu's roaming as much as she had been.

It made Ash laugh, calling after Pikachu as he hurried away. He had already turned and went on his way, heading out towards the bathrooms down the length of the wide airport hall, leaving Serena to watch from where she still stood in the middle of the cafe. As they walked out under the bright, warm lights of the largely empty hall, Serena couldn't help but smile; it was the same Ash and Pikachu she remembered.

There wasn't much to pack at the cafe table. Serena would take care of the card just by stuffing it in the front pouch of the duffel, and the tickets she needed in her jacket pocket—and just one of them for herself. There would be putting Pancham back to 'bed' as it were, but that wouldn't be all that difficult since he had immediately become exhausted as soon as he had laid himself down in the warmed, makeshift nest of Serena's clothes. As she took the card and tickets, scooping them up in her hand as she came around the table, there was one thing that needed to be taken care of: the laptop.

As Serena sat herself down in front of the laptop, she felt slightly helpless in the face of it, herself slouching down gently as she faced it and stared at the plethora of comments. It made her think of what to do, of what she might need to do.

Sitting up, Serena's fingers found the keys of the keyboard, quickly dashing open a key command to open up her post creator—just as familiar as she had left it.

With an idea in mind, she began to type:

* * *

 _Hey everyone! Merry Christmas!_

 _Ask me anything—again!_

* * *

A/N:

Like its predecessor, this story is not an 'ask' story or a Q&A story. Please do not ask any questions for Serena.

If you still believe this does not fall within this website's guidelines on acceptable content, please contact me first.


	2. Chapter 2

"A mistake…? What are you talking about?" asked Ash.

"Well, it's not where we're supposed to be going…"

Though the train station was bustling, full of people on the wide platforms that spanned between where trains came and went on tracks, Ash and Serena had walked themselves to areas that were completely, totally unoccupied by anyone. It was, after all, where their train was.

Several empty tracks and platforms made a divide between where the last major train was leaving for Couriway Town and the train Ash and Serena were scheduled for. The lone, quiet train of only four cars was parked at the end, and through the narrow windows that lined the sides of the steel cars there wasn't a single person to be seen through the windows. The lone person Serena had seen go down the platform length towards the entrance of the train car had almost immediately turned around as soon as they had reached the conductor at the first car

"Wait, so your mom got the wrong tickets? Is that what you're talking about?" asked Ash, through a mouthful of sandwich he was just finishing and swallowing, just before his head craned in for another bite. He held the paper basket of food he had received from the food court they had passed through, half a sandwich remaining and a few fries sitting nestled against the paper lining—fries that Pikachu, who was parked on Ash's shoulder, was snatching up with as many as his little paws could grab at a time.

"Not exactly…" Serena trailed off again. When she looked back, seeing if anyone else was coming towards the train they were getting ready to board, she hadn't realized that Ash had stopped short and nearly ran into him. Blinking, looking up at him as her body craned away, the hands she had folded close to her chest that held tickets were suddenly snatched out of her grasp by Ash so he could take a look.

Ash had only the outer edges of his sandwich left—the layers of ham, lettuce and cheese sticking out from the crusty edges of rye bread in unordered layers—and he dropped it into the basket when he was clearly done. Without looking, he lifted the basket up towards Pikachu, giving Pikachu the chance to stand up from Ash's shoulders and take the basket into his little paws. As Pikachu dumped back the basket and fed himself like a garbage disposal, Ash's hand occupied itself with a napkin clearing bread crumbs and sauce from his face while the other held the tickets in front of himself.

Ash gave the tickets a strange look for only a second before he flipped the ticket over and searched the other. He walked, moving ahead of Serena slowly while Pikachu balanced himself on his hindlegs and rump atop Ash's shoulder. Precisely when Pikachu was done eating, the empty paper basket dropped from between Pikachu's paws and into Ash's open, waiting hand, landing while he looked at the tickets, and when the checkered butcher paper that had stuck to Pikachu's cheeks had finally been clumsily worked off by Pikachu's arms and allowed to float down into the basket, Ash dumped the basket into the trash bin he had come to.

"That's weird," said Ash. "Serena, do you know why your mom would get the wrong tickets?"

Serena had stayed where she had stopped, about twenty feet down the platform from where Ash had walked ahead to the trash bin. She had folded her arms, looking down at the smooth concrete of the platform, her teeth chewing away at the inside of her cheek.

"Well… she—" Serena began. She was cut off just as soon as she had begun to speak, and she looked up to where Ash was as soon as he talked over her.

"Did she send like a note or something? I mean, this seems like an obvious mistake—if it is a mistake."

Serena swallowed. She felt embarrassed, even though she wasn't sure why. She told herself it was the heat from her jacket creeping up her cheeks, making her ears stick out from the lengths of hair she had brushed around them and beneath her knitted hat like red hot pokers.

"She said it was a detour for us. L-Like an adventure…" Serena made herself really embarrassed, clenching the tip of her tongue between her teeth as punishment for letting a stutter slip through.

As Pikachu disappeared down Ash's back, scampering down as he came down onto the platform and then hurrying out in front of Ash, Ash turned his attention up towards Serena. He was looking confused, looking in closer when it seemed she was distressed. Even if she had been looking down and avoiding looking at Ash, the feeling of Ash's eyes on her made her physically turn. If she was trying to hide her embarrassment she wasn't doing a very could job, but Ash was still oblivious to most of it. All he could tell was that she was acting strangely and not much else.

"That… sounds like fun. What's wrong with that?" asked Ash.

"I… Nothing…"

Ash frowned. "Then what's the problem, Serena?"

"The... the party is in Lumiose City. That's where we're supposed to be going," Serena said. She was staring attentively at the train tracks down beneath the platform by her left—for whatever reason, Ash or Pikachu couldn't make sense of, even if it was obvious how uncomfortable she was.

"We're still going to Lumiose City, the tickets say it's the next train we board—it's just like a layover!"

This didn't seem to soothe Serena at all. Something was still stressing her. By the way she rolled her shoulders there was a tenseness in them, something stressing her and forcing the muscles to knot up. Her face wasn't getting any less red, like she was silently fuming on something.

"I guess I... just wasn't planning on it."

Serena felt something coming up from behind, something like a warmth before she knew what it was—it was Ash, seemingly materializing behind her. In her distraction he had walked up to her, walking just as nonchalantly as he did for anything, and she didn't even sense it.

"But… that's alright, right?" said Ash.

There wasn't time for Serena to get any more embarrassed than she already was. She hadn't peaked or reached her threshold, she was getting overwhelmed with a strange sense of confusion. She blinked, snapped out of her thoughts and the numbness of embarrassment, looking back up at her surroundings like she had just walked into completely new surroundings—even if it was the exact same train station they had been in. She was looking down like she might see through her own body, her first instinct when she began to wonder what Ash was doing, trying to see what he was doing. She looked up when she couldn't, staring ahead as she focused on the sensations, realization silently appearing on her face.

He was rubbing her shoulders, awkwardly. His hands were sliding over the lengths of her shoulders, rubbing side to side, missing over the obvious knots that Serena' s shoulders were tied up in. Though Serena was still just as confused—if not more—the little feeling of the tips of Ash's thumbs weakly brushing over the toughened skin between her spine and shoulder-blades was enough to provide an intense, short relief.

It was… romantic. Clumsy, but romantic. More than anything it was an attempt, and it was more romantic than anything Ash had ever done.

"Just… just a fun little adventure on the Kalos railroad, right?" Ash smiled. "Everything doesn't have to be perfect, alright?"

Serena's hand reached for Ash's, clasping over the top of it. His hand stopped, but only for a second, as Serena's gently guided it back to where her shoulder met her neck. Her thumb laid over the top of his, slim and slender, as it pointed his back onto the stress point. When she looked back over her shoulder, and she looked back at Ash's confused face, she gave a knowing look; even if she wasn't much more confused than he was, she was understanding what he was trying to do.

"Sure, that sounds... nice…" Serena smiled.


	3. Chapter 3

The length of the train, from the inside, was proving to be as empty as Serena had guessed from the outside. As she made her way down the narrow hallway, duffel pushed up in front of her and resting against the front of her hips as she walked, she looked through the doors that had been left open by the crew of the train to signal where spots were open or not, and so far she had run into only a few that were occupied. From what she could tell as she hesitated at each open door and craned her head in, being tasked with finding a train-car for the two of them, she had the pick of the train.

The second car was largely empty, only one passenger occupying a compartment near the front of it, and Serena opted for one near the middle—as she counted silently from the doors leading down the row, it was the furthest out from anyone else. She stepped through the narrow doorway, finding the inside of the cozy compartment.

Two seats, wide benches covered in soft cloth and pillowy cushions, faced one another with a horizontally-wide, vertically-narrow window at their side and the door at the other. Two lamplights had been mounted to the wall on either side of the window, and though it normally would have filled the room with warm, luxurious light on their own, a Christmas garland of artificial pine ends and little twinkling lights framed the window to fill the room with multi-colored light and a sense of holiday cheer. Serena took a moment just to stand in the center of the room, taking in the scent of artificial pine and real sweets that had made their way through the compartment air filters, enjoying the Christmas-y atmosphere that made her so excited for the rest of the trip.

Something was fidgeting in front of her—something she could only feel, not see. It wouldn't have bothered Serena as much as it had if she wasn't as used to having the duffel bag slung in front of her hips. Feeling something shifting around and brushing against her stomach felt as weird as it should have, and when she looked down and sat the round rising lump coming up through the half-open flap of the duffel was when she remembered.

She spotted, beneath the benches, beneath the edge of where the luxurious pink cushioning of the benches ended and small netted stowaway compartment was tucked beneath the seat. She knelt down on the patterned, golden carpet, slipping the strap of the duffel over her head and letting the bag rest down on the floor.

As soon as the zipper went down on the upper flap of the duffel, Pancham's head rose up and poked through. The change in environment, the warmth of the compartment interior, seemingly had seeped through the thick material of the bag and made its way to him, waking him up. Though he wasn't fully awake, he looked out with one eye open as he looked up from where he was lying on his belly in the inside of the bag. A tiny, squeaking yawn came as his little black ears rose, brushing against the tuft of white hair that stood out from his scalp.

"Get some rest there, big guy?" Serena grinned, watching as Pancham lumbered out of the top of the bag, gently lowering his stumpy legs to the carpeted ground and walking out. The thin hoodie that Serena had packed and that Pancham had used as sleeping bag came out too, dragging like a cape as he held the two open folds by the zipper track, wandering sleepily across the floor.

"Pan—chuhh—panchaaa…" Pancham said, caught between a yawn. He was wandering towards the window, where a heat vent was laid in the middle of the carpet, letting heat come up from between. He walked until he was standing on it, letting the heat blowing up out of it inflate the lengths of the thin hoodie until all of the heat blossomed out the other end when it had risen high enough. Enough was still trapped inside for it to brush up past fur on Pancham's neck, sending ripples of hot air through the surface.

Serena giggled. She reached into her bag, taking out her laptop, just before she folded over the top flap of the duffel and slid it beneath the bench, letting the mesh underneath keep the bag tucked inside and safe from the motions the parked train would later experience. The laptop in her hand came to rest on the bench above her—the one she had chosen as her bench, with the window at her left and the door at her right.

"You just missed Ash, but he'll be back soon," Serena said, getting to her feet. She drew her zipper down the length of her puffy pink coat, undoing the front she had tucked herself into. She let it slide over her arms, then stooping towards the floor to stash it in the stowaway cubby beneath the seat, beside her bag. "Just had to run to the bathroom before he took off."

"Chaaacha…"

As Serena sat down on the bench and stooped over, pulling down the zipper along the side of her winter boots, she couldn't help but smile at Pancham. "Yes," she chuckled, letting out a small snort of air, "he took Pikachu with him. I don't know why, but he did. Guess they really are inseparable."

As Serena wormed her feet out of the thick winter boots, exposing her soft, wooly and striped socks to the carpet of the train compartment, she scooted the boots aside, quickly taking away the knitted hat from her head and letting it rest down beside where she parked her boots against the wall. She knelt on the bench, bringing herself up to a dark glass panel in the wall on her right, quickly smoothing out her hair in the weak reflection. Waving her hand in front of it, the LED display beneath the glass came to life and showed the touch controls for the small compartment.

"Pan chama." Pancham was blunt, probably due to his exhaustion, but it sounded like a demand at a straight answer.

Finger on the touch-panel slider of the heat controls of the compartment, Serena watched as Pancham stared at the wall and immersed himself in the pure heat of the vent pointed up at his belly and hindquarters. For a moment Serena was envious, but it was a fleeting distraction from the thought Pancham had planted in her head. She looked back towards the screen like nothing had happened, even though she gave a heavy sigh like she was thinking about something she didn't necessarily want to think about.

"It was fine! Really good to see him," said Serena, flat-faced, not so much as a reaction or smile to match her happy tone.

"Paaan..."

"What does that mean?" Serena frowned, looking back at him. There was a deathly gaze coming out of his dark eyes—it was helped by his exhaustion, but even still Pancham wasn't putting up with the oddities of Serena's typical question dodging. It made Serena shrink back slightly as she looked at him, fidgeting on top of her knees like she was trying to find a comfortable spot away from his prying eyes. It took her several seconds to remember just what she was doing with the touch-panel when she finally slid the little touch control up, increasing the heat in the compartment.

Pancham dropped Serena's hoodie from where he had draped it over his own shoulders, letting it slink onto the ground and slip away under the brush of intense heat coming from the vent in the floor. The fur on every inch of his body seemed to smooth out as soon as he stepped out from the vent, even if it was incredibly feathery like any hair Serena had seen coming out of a blow-dryer, and he seemed to be returning to his serious disposition as he trudged over towards Serena. He stood defiantly, like he was her accuser.

"Really, it was nothing," said Serena. "What ever makes you think it was so bad?"

"Pan _chama_ chan-chan!" Pancham protested angrily.

"What? _Again?_ What am I doing again?" Serena's eyes narrowed, succumbing to annoyance as she looked down at Pancham. In a single move, her skinny legs slipped over the side of the bench and landed on the ground, bringing herself to stand in front of Pancham. She was standing defiantly, folding her arms like the tiny two foot tall Pokemon posed some kind of threat to her.

"Rrrrraaaaan! Chanpan ch-chan!"

" _Yes!_ Of course!" Serena protested, desperately. She let out a groan, hands clawing at the airspace around her head like she was ready to tear the hair from her head. "Of course I got upset over something silly! And… And of course it ended up being nothing."

Serena's socked feet paced on the floor, bringing her around in a tight, quick circle as she thought of several different ways to walk out of that very train compartment and away from this wretched conversation. Her hands clawed at the skin of her face, the edges of her shortly-cut fingernails ready to tear through until she found the problem. Down beneath, as she paced, Pancham wasn't having any of it—even if he had made some small breakthrough in conversation, even if it was intriguing him, he wasn't ready to let this go as easily. Even if Serena couldn't see it, a moment of doubt flickered through his eyes, but it was gone in a blink.

"But…" Serena continued. The temper of her voice had changed as she turned—no longer was it as desperate as she had been when she had let slip her little outburst. She seemed thoughtful, staring ahead at the walls of the compartment. "This time… something different happened. Ash didn't let me get all weird about it. He was… understanding. Ash was trying to make sense of what was going on, and he was trying to listen to me…"

Pancham's eyes narrowed. He was suspicious of what Serena was saying, even if he didn't know why.

"I… I don't really know what to think about any of it if I'm being honest, Pancham…"

Serena brought herself down to the ground, putting a hand behind her as her legs folded together. Her hands tucked themselves into her lap as she gently leaned forward and into the headspace of the conversation, looking ahead blankly as she contemplated whatever she was going to say next.

"It seems like a different Ash, and I'm not sure what changed. I mean—it's the same Ash, I know that much, and he talks and… and feels like the real Ash, but…" said Serena. "I guess I want to say that nothing has really changed at all, because I don't know what I could have said or done to change… whatever this thing _between_ us is…"

Pancham blinked, slowly, like he hadn't expected to. He looked at the ground, strangely, suddenly feeling the urge to shut his eyes.

"Maybe I've changed…" Serena thought aloud—it was the first moment in the conversation where Serena wasn't really talking to Pancham.

Pancham took the opportunity. He turned, silently, plodding across the ornate Kalosian carpet and making his way to the bench on the left—Serena's bench. The sensation of sleep creeping through his little body was driving him to waddle, slowing the pace to what he could manage. He headed towards the bottom of the bench, reaching the foot of it, reaching out with a leg and pushing down on the elastic cord of the cubby netting, using it to get a little bit of spring in his step to lift up towards the cushion of the bench and hoist his body onto it. Once he had put himself over the edge, he used his arms to tug himself just a little further to let him swing his leg over the side and ease his way into the spot where the two cushions met.

"Are you going to stay awake for me to talk with, Pancham?" Serena asked. It caught Pancham's attention, making him turn his head to look back at Serena and see where she was looking back with a smile. She had leaned back just a bit, putting her arms behind her and letting one of her folded legs sprawl out across the floor.

Just then, by Serena's side, the door to the compartment rattled along its little track and opened to reveal the inside of the compartment beside them. Her head turned and caught a glimpse of gray pants in front of her, leading to the boyish figure of Ash standing in the door.

"What's happening in here, huh?" Ash smiled, stepping through, oblivious to Serena and Pancham's conversation.

Though it had crossed Serena's mind for a split-second, Serena didn't worry. If anything would worry it her it was that she _hadn't_ worried, but that only drew her attention to something else. As her eyes looked to the ground as they did when she had an instinct of thought, she chased the small train of thought through her head that she hadn't needed to worry about whether or not Ash had heard her expressing her feelings. There was an openness she felt with Ash suddenly, brought to her attention both by the conversation with Pancham and the conversation with Ash on the platform. It was pointing to… something. Serena couldn't put her finger on it.

As Serena brought herself back up to standing in front of Ash, a loud jarring sound caught Serena's attention—it was the one happening right behind her, the loud sound of snoring from Pancham as his round, melonish head pressed against the walls of the train compartment.

Serena snickered. "I guess my conversation partner just went to sleep! Poor Pancham..."


	4. Chapter 4

Serena was looking up at Ash, but she was looking past him. She couldn't seem to make sense of an odd detail that had crossed her mind.

The thing she noticed was still there, that feeling of ease around Ash. It was a new sensation, and for a moment she had wondered if it was a false positive, but it was still there—it had to be real. She no longer had that twitchy sense of being on edge that had pervaded her every move before, instead she had a sense of peace around Ash. The stomachful of Butterfree she had filling her stomach was gone.

Before, Serena hadn't been able to describe what she was feeling—she couldn't put words to it. Now, she knew exactly what it was: the feeling that everything didn't need to be perfect.

"I guess my conversation partner just went to sleep! Poor Pancham..."

Ash gave her an odd look, taking a step back as Serena rose off of where she had been sitting on the ground. "You… already said that, Serena..." he said, watching like he was waiting for her to notice him.

Where Serena was standing, looking back up at Ash and taking notice of him like it was the first time, she still seemed distracted by something. There was a split second like Serena was watching something, making Ash look over his shoulder. She then caught herself blinking, refocusing on Ash and making eye contact. Her eyes grew, suddenly realizing that the attention was on her, seconds before she finally put everything together.

"O-Oh…! Right! I mean…"

"Heh, Serena, it's okay. You don't have to be worried around me."

That had surprised Serena more than anything. He had noticed it too—just the way they looked at each other, piecing it all together as their eyes shifted and searched one another, they both could see what Serena had noticed before: the conversation between the two of them had changed. Everything they had just said in that small exchange was all formality—something they would have said to smooth out any strange pause like that or just to make one another feel at ease.

This was new.

"I'm… not," said Serena. Her eyes followed Ash as he walked in front of her, as he crossed the room and set his backpack down on the bench opposite where Serena had parked her things and where Pancham was asleep. She lingered on him, not realizing that her arms had folded out of instinct until she was gently pulling them apart, letting them rest by her side.

As Ash opened his backpack and rooted through it, pulling out his water bottle and his Pokeballs to set beside him, he wormed his arms out of the thick blue coat he was wearing. He looked out of place in the dark shirt he was wearing, for someone who normally wore shirts without any kind of sleeves, but comfortable in the warmth of the train and the compartment. He seemed to carry on about what he was doing, and the more Serena watched and tried to make sense of it the more she realized he was waiting for her.

Serena had come to her seat on the opposite, sitting herself down but not allowing herself to sit back. Her back was as straight as a board, her hands folded together over her lap like she was in church, looking over at Ash.

"You just seem a little tense, you know," said Ash.

"Do I?"

Ash looked up from his backpack. For a split-second he doubted himself, then he shook it off, realizing how ridiculous the question was. "I mean… yeah. But…"

"But what?" Serena asked, immediately, not wanting to give Ash the opportunity to disappear back into his backpack.

"I… It's nothing…"

"Ash, what is it?"

"It's just normal for you, I guess…" Ash said, looking back up. "You always seem so tense…"

Serena smiled. "That's just me, I guess."

"Heh, yeah. You really worry about everything."

"Well…" Serena had started to protest, only seconds before she realized that she was beginning to give voice to everything she was thinking about. She had seemingly needed to spell it all out first, but it was beginning to put her in circles.

"What is it?" asked Ash. He had leaned in slightly, wanting to hear.

"I guess it's just my default, you know? I… worry because that's what I'm used to. I guess this is the first time where I've realized I really haven't had to worry."

Ash sat up a little bit. He looked over, confused at everything Serena had just said.

"What's changed….?" asked Ash.


	5. Chapter 5

On the wall, beside the square, glowing touch-panel of the vending machine, another bottle dropped down through the plastic track and landed facing out towards Serena. The plastic track was like a holster, looking like some kind of futuristic cup-holder as a mechanical arm lifted and tipped the neck of the bottle out towards Serena to be grasped—which she did.

Serena was now cradling two of the chilly plastic bottles against the front of her sweater, both her and Ash's tickets clutched at the end of her pinched fingers. She momentarily contemplated the touch-panel for another second, wondering if she could go for a snack, just before her eyes wandered elsewhere.

The train car she was in was short, near the front of the train and just before the main engine that led the train towards their destination. It's sole purpose—from what Serena had guessed—was just for dispensing food, beverage, and other amenities the train could provide through the automated system. It was one, like many of the other cars Serena had passed through, completely devoid of people or Pokemon. It meant that Serena was alone, standing in the middle of the car as it gently jostled along the tracks beneath her, giving her a chance to look outside the wide, vertical windows that felt almost like stepping out into the scenery outside the train as it passed through. Ahead, Serena was looking out at the vast hills of the Kalos region, watching as they turned to a dark blue against the pinkening sky through a perfect sunset.

It wasn't necessarily a bad thing—in Serena's eyes—that she had been so preoccupied by getting herself together with the others, and then getting those people to move along and stick to the plan; as her mom was the organizer of this operation, and she was her mother's daughter, she was the 'enforcer' and executor of this plan. Still, it was the first time that Serena had been given a second to really think to herself and make sense of the rush of activity that had taken place so far.

She walked a little closer to the glass, leaning against the wall the vending machine was built into, staring out into the landscape ahead of her.

* * *

 **shadic4456 asks:**

 **Merry Christmas Serena. Here's my question for ya. If you ever get the chance, would you kiss Ash if the two of you were under the mistletoe?**

* * *

In the middle of everything that had happened so far that day, Serena had nearly forgotten about the questions she had opened up on her blog. She hadn't entirely ignored them—between moments she had seen the notifications that she had been getting questions through the little alerts that appeared on her map—but she hadn't opened her laptop to respond. Some of the questions she had remembered, and they gave her the chance to think.

* * *

 _Hi there, Merry Christmas to you too!_

 _I think the short answer to your question is that I really don't know if I can. It doesn't seem like Ash is upset or anything at when I… you know… but I guess I haven't really seen if he's on-board with it or wanting to… do more of that. I think too that even if he is, whether or not we get the chance to kiss or, well, just even talk about it, is all really up in the air._

 _See, I think the great thing about this trip is that I get the chance to do things like hang out with Ash and get some privacy before we get to see his friends and mine. Just because we had spent so much time together it would be good to sort of 'recap'. But that's sort of the problem. See, because we're just recapping what we did before, we're catching up and seeing how we are, it doesn't really leave room for us to… change._

 _Last time I saw Ash, I... I kissed him. It felt like the sky was crashing down to earth for a split second—not the feeling of the kiss, but the feeling before. The earth could tear itself apart before I see him again—which, well, it almost did when I was with Ash. But most importantly, I knew deep down that there wouldn't be a chance to change like that again. After that, things would already have changed for better or worse, and there'd be nothing we could do to change that. All we could do is try to get back to where we were before, and we'd never get there because we'd only be reaching._

* * *

The door of the train compartment slid back automatically. Serena, standing on the other side, wielding tickets in her hand with the bar code facing the door, looked into the compartment and saw nothing. She blinked, making sure she wasn't missing something as her vision panned from either side, only finding where she had left Pancham on the bench in her left-behind sweater.

"That sunset is really something, huh?"

Serena hadn't realized she was squinting, and that it had narrowed her vision just enough that she missed the bushy black hair just in her horizon of view. The incredible slice of orange light just barely visible against the edge of the hills was the sun, and the window made a bright, rectangular stamp of light against the back walls and through the doorway she was standing in. She seemed to be shades of bright orange against the dark, pitted shadows she created just by standing in view of the light.

Down beneath, Ash was sitting down on the ground near the vent in the floor that put out the incredible warmth that the narrow corridors of the train lacked. His back rested against the bottom part of the bench, where in the cubby beneath opposite the one that Serena had stowed away her things in, Pikachu's head poked out and hung down in the netting like a hammock, asleep, looking an awful lot like a burrito with the blanket over him.

* * *

 _But something strange happened, when Ash first came to Kalos._

 _I guess I'm making things seem too grim, I'm making it sound like he died or something. I know deep down friendships like ours can't really die, but they change in a weird way. I know things changed when Ash came to Kalos, when I met him a second time, but Ash sort of broke the rule. Meeting people again like that can be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, it just doesn't happen at all the way it did between myself and Ash, and I can't even think of a proper way of putting it into words. The point is, Ash has broken the rule before—maybe that's what makes him such a good friend, that you're never starting over with him, you're just… continuing._

 _Sometimes, that little bit of strange is really like a little bit of magic, and it gets you somewhere you didn't think you could be._

* * *

"I don't think it'll be too long before we get to our stop," said Ash, keeping his voice low. When Serena handed him down his soda he took it, carefully it to his side while he opened the cap as quietly as he could muster—something he did with a quick crank that pulled all the air out in a quiet hiss.

Serena was sitting herself down on the floor, opposite where Ash was with his legs crossed. She was careful, her own soda open, her hands mindful of keeping the bottle level while she brought herself down to the ground. Her legs folded beneath her and rested to the side, sitting like she would if she were wearing a dress despite wearing pants. She took the soda, taking a delicate sip, then placing the cap back on the bottle to set it beside her while she reached behind her—her body positioned to take out from the cubby beneath her bench the laptop she had stowed in her bag.

* * *

 _And maybe that's the trick. See, I think the… secret, to Ash, the weird thing about him, is that he never changes. Well, maybe that's true of Ash more than anyone, but it's also kinda true of everyone, too. People don't really change, at all. Everything else changes, but people keep doing the thing they do._

 _That 'change' I talked about, it's really just getting closer or getting away. The 'everything else' changes, and that keeps people apart more than anything. The change is like finding something new, finding some part of yourself that was always there and maybe doesn't appear when you're by yourself. It doesn't go away when you're with someone, but you just… can't get to it when you're with someone else._

 _There's a lot I don't know about Ash. There's a lot I don't know about myself. Being with him exposes parts of that, it brings out the truth, and just like the last time I saw him, that… kiss… it exposed something in the both of us. Something I know is still there, but something I don't know what it is._

 _So… the answer is really yes. I would… do that thing in your question. I probably would. I don't know what it all means, but that's just because I haven't really explored it. All I know is that I want to, and that's a start._

* * *

"Well," asked Ash. "What shall we do?"


End file.
